Steel nerves
by seasnake.756
Summary: Cross's POV about that one evening he found Allen. Companion piece to Oute and Inner


Now, this just striked me in the evening. It's Cross's POV when he found Allen. I have a feeling that I wrote him too nicely... Well I think you can call this a companion piece to Outer and Inner.

* * *

They were both wearing rags, patched up uncountable times. And how dirty looking they were. I could never wear something like that. They were probably some eternally-broke travellers. You ran into those people sometimes.

I'd known that there would be something happening at the graveyard that night. I'd seen them, those two, on the same day. The man had collapsed to the ground. I knew he wouldn't live long anymore. It was amazing, how I could hear the mans breathing so well when his face and the words he whispered to the sobbing, brown-haired child next to him, remained secret. I didn't stick around to watch the black-clad man to draw his final breath.

It wasn't my business anyway. It became my business if the kid would end up being too _weak_ and calling the Earl around.

…. I could still hear the tired and worn-out cries, even after a couple blocks. They spoke about abandonment in a way I couldn't even start to understand. In a way I didn't even _want_ to understand.

I went to the graveyard anyway. I still am not exactly sure how I ended up there. Instinct, perhaps…or too little booze.

It was long distance, to watch the child. Humans would never cease to amaze me. How fast they could get rid of something unpleasant, like for example, a dead body. He had been laid to the grave only two hours after his death. The village hadn't wanted an eyesore to their alleys.

The kid was there, leaning to the gravestone. His eyes were so hollow. But he wasn't the first kid I'd seen like that. There were rather too many kids I've seen like that. I made a quick calculation in my head. The man, funny how I just can't make myself to call him a guy, had died around 1 o'clock. It was 9 o'clock now.

He had been sitting there for six hours. Maybe he was dead already. Hypothermia maybe. It was a chilly night.

I made Tim take some zoomed footage on him. Nope, not dead yet. There was an endless stream of tears going down his cheeks. I erased the footage from Tim. To retain my peace of mind.

Then it happened. The fatso we all hate so dearly had arrived. I know how the story goes, I didn't need to watch it again. You might ask me why I don't stop the Earl but I have a policy about this. If they decide to go through with it, then it's their choice. Not mine.

I found this one to be a violent akuma. It attacked the boy instantaneously. I moved closer and the full moon made his blood shine in the grass. It looked like his eye had been slashed.

Then I heard creaking and it sure as hell wasn't coming from the dried-up tree behind this farce. I slowly realized where it was from.

It was from the boys _hand_.

Then light erupted and the claw-like Innocence attacked the akuma. The boy was dragged helplessly along. I could hear them now.

"I love you Allen. Please kill me."

I saw the boys face. I don't know what he saw that night but I'm not exactly keen to know anyway. Not even after three years.

Even my gut wrenched at the image they presented. The child had just seen his father die twice, second time by his own hand.

After there was nothing left of the akuma, I walked to the scene.

He was unmoving. The hollow feeling he gave off had just doubled. My steps made him raise his head. I almost stopped to the place.

The left side of his face was covered in blood, I could swear that the eyeball had gone actually _black. _And if he wasn't damned already, then now was. Under all that dirt, his hair was white, no mistake about it.

"A soul trapped inside the akuma is doomed forever." I said. "It's bound to be the Millennium Earls toy for eternity."

"There's no other way to save it, except to exorcise it."

Even thought all the gory things I've been through, this boy just jumped straight to the top 5.

After that, in a six weeks the boy, Allen, developed himself a mask. Only I, who have seen him in his worst, can catch a glimpse of the person under. I silently praise him for his skill.

But even after all these years, I still congratulate myself for speaking so calmly back then.

In front of that child.

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Do tell me what you think. This was certainly interesting to write. :)... I might actually answer to your reviews, I feel so good about this one.


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